Many universities really have got to grips with social media in recent years, and new research highlights Oxford and Sheffield as competing with the best US institutions.The study by Sociagility showed that American colleges used social media most effectively, but some of their British counterparts performed well too.A handy Mashable summary pulled out the top 10 – headed by Harvard, Pennsylvania and MIT. But here we look more closely at the report’s findings on UK universities.The study examined the performance of leading UK and US universities in the 2011–2012 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and compared them with scores based on Sociagility’s proprietary PRINT™ measurement system.This measures social media performance across five social attributes and on multiple platforms.UK Sociagility ranking:

Oxford PRINT index 158 THES ranking 4

Sheffield 153 101

Cambridge 125 6

Lancaster 98 131

UCL 94 17

The report highlights Sheffield, Lancaster and Nottingham (which placed sixth) for “using social media to punch well above their weight”.The individual measures which create the ranking also provide interesting reading.Here are the top three in each measure:Popularity: 1. Cambridge 1622. Oxford 1473. Sheffield 125Receptiveness: